I stand in awe of God Jehovah of the Holy Bible. He alone is the pathway to joy, peace, serenity, and freedom. Every other religion in the world, and unfortunately, some Christian denominations as well, still emphasize “our works” to make us right with God. What a tragedy. Christ came to set the captives free, and to give us an abundant life. Notice that both promises – “to set the captives free” and “to give us an abundant life” – are predicated on the first two words, “Christ came”. God’s plan was always (even before the world was created) to provide a Savior to do for his proudest creation (US) what he knew we would be incapable of doing for ourselves.
So why is accepting this gift from a loving God who wants an eternal relationship with us so difficult? Could it be that it is too simple? Does it challenge us to accept something so simple, especially since “we” are way too smart and complicated for that plan? “My therapist” you say, “who has a PhD, and if that weren’t enough, an XYZ behind the PhD to show post doctoral work, well… even he still can’t figure me out! So that just goes to show you that I’m way too overburdened, complicated and broken for something as simple as “just believing!” So goes the thinking of the fearful mind, the doubtful mind, the clouded mind, and the intellectual mind.
Apostle Paul tells us he that he struggled with the same dilemma in the first century: “I know very well how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction. But we who are being saved recognize this same message as the very power of God. As the Scriptures say, ‘I will destroy human wisdom and discard their most brilliant ideas. God’s way seems foolish to the Jews because they want a sign from heaven to prove it is true. And it is foolish to the Greeks because they believe only what agrees with their own wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.” (1Corinthians 1: 18-19; 22-23) Let’s face it, nothing is more challenging to our human nature (or our sin nature, as the Bible calls it) than submitting to something greater than ourselves, especially something that is beyond our five senses and in the spiritual realm. And therein, I believe, lies the problem.
Let’s review for a moment the Old Covenant and the Law, with the understanding that the Law was the heart and soul of the Old Covenant. The original intent of the Law was threefold. First, it was civil law. The Israelites had been in bondage to Egypt for four hundred years, so when they finally experienced freedom, there was utter chaos in the wilderness. Therefore, God called Moses to join Him on Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments (a.k.a. theLaw). If the Israelites would follow these ten steps, there could be order and civility among the people. But it was more than civil law, it was also God’s standard. He wanted us to live in obedience to these commandments. And the final reason for the Law was to prove Man’s inability to live according to this standard through his own effort. Apostle Paul stated this emphatically in Galatians 2:21: “For if we could be saved by keeping the law, then there would be no need for Christ to die.” But we proved, without a shadow of a doubt, that we were “utterly helpless” to keep the Law and save ourselves. (Ref. Romans 5:6)
The issue that keeps Man separated from God is SIN (all caps for emphasis). And the definition of Sin is living separated from God’s will. In other words, if we are focused on “our will” rather than on God’s will, we are “living in Sin”. So under the Old Covenant, there was a sacrificial system set up to atone for our sins, using the blood of animals to cover those sins. (So your next logical question might be, “Why was blood needed to cover our sins?” The author of Hebrews answers that question in 9:22: “In fact, we can say that according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified by the sprinkling of blood. Without the shedding of blood, there could be no covering [or future forgiveness] of sins.”)
Bear in mind, this system was only to be in place until the coming of Jesus Christ, the Sacrificial Lamb who’s one time sacrifice would pay the price for the sins of Mankind! In fact, even God himself stated through two prophets His disdain for this old system: “I am sick of your sacrifices”, says the Lord. “Don’t bring Me any more burnt offerings! I don’t want the fat from your rams or other animals. I don’t want to see the blood from your offerings of bulls and rams and goats.” (Isaiah 1:11) and “I want you to be merciful. I don’t want your sacrifices. I want you to know God. That’s more important than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6)
So now let’s compare the Old Covenant (before Christ’s sacrifice) with the New Covenant (after Christ’s sacrifice). Under the Old Covenant, people tried to earn God’s approval and acceptance by being obedient to the Law. But It didn’t take long to discover that the Law is contrary to our “sin nature.” The religious leaders at the time, the Pharisees, recognized this dilemma, so in their attempt to help the people be more successful in their failing effort, they added an additional six hundred man-made rules and regulations to help them stay in compliance with the “Big Ten.” The end result was total bondage to the law and a prevalence of guilt, shame and remorse.
But the Old Covenant came to an end when Jesus Christ said from the cross, “It is finished!” This was the final sacrifice, and His shed blood didn’t just cover our sins…it washed away our sins. So when we accept Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf by inviting Him to be our Lord and Savior, we have accepted God’s Gift of Grace. We didn’t have to work to get it, and we certainly could not earn it through our own effort. But this was God’s plan, as stated in Romans 10:13: “For anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” and Acts 4:12: “There is salvation in no one else! There is no other name in all of heaven (or on earth) for people to call on to save them.” JESUS!
The whole Salvation process is summed up in John 3:16: “For God so love the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have eternal life.” Notice that there is only one requirement for salvation: to believe in Him. Once that happens, we are immediately transformed. 2 Corinthians 5:17 describes this: “We are a new creation in Christ: the old has gone (we are no longer slaves to our sin-nature); the new has come”. (indwelling Holy Spirit) Now we are ready to begin the process of growing more Christ-like. This is described in 2 Peter 1:3-4: “The more we grow in our knowledge of Jesus, His divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive His own glory and goodness! And by that same mighty power, He has given us all of His rich and wonderful promises. He has promised that we will escape the decadence all around us caused by evil desires, and that we will share in His divine nature.”
So you might be saying to yourself, “Wow! I can’t do that. I can’t imagine myself becoming more Christ-like.” And I would say, “I agree with you. You can’t”. But the good news is…God also knew it. That’s why He gifted all Believers with the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Spirit empowers us to rise above our circumstances and our environment to become the person God created us to be. He gifted us with this supernatural power so we can claim the victory that is already ours.
Notice this differece between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The Old Covenant left the people in bondage to The Law, so guilt, shame and remorse still prevailed. The New Covenant, however, is the pathway to joy, peace, serenity, and freedom. But you might be asking, “But aren’t we still expected to obey the Ten Commandments.” And I would answer, “Absolutely!” But today our motivation for obeying God’s Law is different. Because we made a decision to accept God’s Gift of Grace, we are in Christ, and therefore are worthy and acceptable in His eyes. Today our motivation for bringing honor and glory to God is not to earn his favor, but it is our way of saying “Thank You” for Your plan for my salvation!
Let me close with this Scripture from Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God’s Masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so that we can now do the good things he planned for us long ago.” And now that we are in Christ, the focus is not on “Me”. Therefore I am capable of doing the good things God planned for me long ago. That’s the simplicity of being in Christ. It’s a matter of us getting out of the way and allowing the Holy Spirit to be our guide, our comforter, and the one who will lead us into all truth. (Let all of that sink in!) 🙂
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May God Bless you abundantly…
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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